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Professor David Kinley

Profile

Degrees

BA CNAA MA Sheff PhD Camb

Areas of Interest

  • International and domestic human rights law
  • Corporations and human rights
  • Economic, social and cultural rights
  • Human rights and global finance


Brief Biographical Detail

Professor David Kinley holds the Chair in Human Rights Law at University of Sydney. He is also an Academic Panel member of Doughty Street Chambers in London, a member of the Australian Council for Human Rights, and was a founding member of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. He is currently on the Faculty of Oxford/George Washington Universities’ International Human Rights Law Summer School and has previously held teaching positions at Cambridge University, ANU, University of New South Wales, Washington College of Law, American University, and Paris 1 (La Sorbonne). He was also the founding Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University (2000-2005). He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 2004, based in Washington DC, and the Herbert Smith Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge in 2008. He has also held visiting positions at the universities of Edinburgh, Geneva, Pretoria, Queen’s University Belfast and the South Pacific (Vanuatu), and has been invited to lecture at leading law schools worldwide, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Columbia, Copenhagen, Duke, Georgetown, George Washington, Harvard, Hong Kong University, Humboldt, the LSE, the Max Planck Institute, McGill, NYU, New Delhi, Nottingham, Osgoode Hall, Oxford, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Sheffield, Stanford, Tilburg, Toronto, Trinity College Dublin, Tulane, Tsinghua, UCLA, Virginia and Yale. He has written and edited eight books and more than 80 articles, book chapters, reports and papers.

He has also worked for 20 years as a consultant and adviser on international and domestic human rights law in (or with agencies from) China, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iraq, Nepal, Laos, the Pacific Islands, and Myanmar. He has worked for wide range of international organizations, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Bank, the European Union, the Ford Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the UNDP, AusAID, the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, and the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, as well as a number of transnational corporations and NGOs. He has also previously worked for three years with the Australian Law Reform Commission and two years with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

His particular expertise is in human rights and the global economy, focusing on the respective roles and responsibilities of corporations and states. He is internationally recognized as a leader in the field, having published widely in the area and been asked to advise the UN, the UK Parliament, the US Congress and the Australian Government on the topic. His most recent publications include the critically acclaimed Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and the Global Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2009), as well as editor of Corporations and Human Rights (Ashgate, 2009), and The WTO and Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Edward Elgar 2009). Two other jointly edited collections will be published in 2013, entitled: Principled Engagement: Promoting Human Rights in Repressive States (Ashgate), and Human Rights: Old Problems and New Possibilities (Edward Elgar). He is currently (2013) working on two new books – one looking at the intersections between global finance and human rights entitled An Awkward Intimacy: Why Human Rights and Finance must Learn to Love Each Other, and the second, a textbook on economic, social and cultural rights (for Oxford University Press).

David was born and brought up in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 70s, studied in England in the 1980s at the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge, and, after obtaining his doctorate in constitutional and human rights law from the latter in 1990, he moved to Australia. He now lives in Sydney with his wife and three children.

Most recent publications

Books | Books in progress | Monographs | Chapters in books | Refereed articles | Shorter articles, reviews & briefs | Reports, submissions and other papers | Conference & Speaking Engagements (selected)

Books


Books in progress


Monographs


Chapters in books

2013

2012

2010

  • “After the Fall – Poverty, Politics and Human Rights, Post-GFC”,in Binder & Lacmayer (eds) Proceedings of the 2009 University of Vienna, ICL-Workshop.

2009

  • “Introduction” to D Kinley (ed) Corporations and Human Rights (Ashgate, 2009).
  • Viet Nam, Human Rights and Trade: Implications of Vietnam’s Accession to the WTO” (with Hai Nugyen & Odette Murray), in Joseph, Kinley & Waincymer (eds) , The WTO and Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Edward Elgar, 2009).

2008

  • “Human Rights, Corporations and the Global Economy” (with Justine Nolan), in Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer (eds) Handbook on Corporate Citizenship (Edward Elgar);

2007

  • “The Norms are Dead. Long Live the Norms! The Politics Behind the UN Human Rights for Corporations” (with Justine Nolan and Natalie Zerial) in McBarnett, Voiculescu and Campbell (eds), The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law (CUP);

2006

  • "Human Rights and the World Bank: Practice, Politics and Law", in C. Raj Kumar & DK Srivastava (eds) Human Rights and Development: Challenges for Governance Reform in Asia, LexisNexis, 155-85

2005

  • “The Conceptual Origins and Evolution of Human Rights”, (with Cao Đức Thái), chapter 1 in David Kinley & Cao Đức Thái (eds) International Human Rights Law, (Publishing House of Political Theory, Hanoi, Vietnam).
  • “Human Rights and the Global Economy”, (with Cao Đức Thái), chapter 10 in David Kinley & Cao Đức Thái (eds) International Human Rights Law, (Publishing House of Political Theory, Hanoi, Vietnam).
  • "Corporate Social Responsibility and International Human Rights Law” in R Mullerat (ed) Corporate Social Responsibility, The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century (Kluwer)
  • “The Globalization of Human Rights Laws” in Spencer Zifcak (ed) Globalisation and the Rule of Law (Routledge, London)

2004

  • “The Institutional Mediation of Human Rights in Australia” (with Penny Martin), chapter 10 in P. Boreham, G. Stokes and R. Hall (eds) The Politics of Australian Society; 2nd edn (Pearson, Sydney)

2003

  • “Human Rights, Trade and Multinational Corporations” with Adam McBeth, in R Sullivan (ed) Business and Human Rights: Dilemmas and Solutions (Greenleaf, London)


Refereed articles

2013

  • “When Human Rights ‘Responsibilities’ become ‘Duties’: The Extra-territorial Obligations of States that Bind Corporations” (with Daniel Augenstein) (2013) Australian Journal of Corporate Law (forthcoming; republication of chapter of same name, above)
  • “Finding Freedom: Human Rights in the Political Economy” (2013) 7 Chinese International Law Review (in Chinese) (forthcoming)

2012

2011

2009

2007

2006

2004

2002-2003


Shorter articles, reviews & briefs

2012

  • Amici Curiae Brief to Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (Shell) No.10-1491 (12 June 2012) (co-author)

2009

2006

2003

  • “Globalisation and The Law” (2003) 15(4) Legal Date 1-3
  • “The Human Rights Responsibilities of Multinational Corporations: A Legal Study”, with S Joseph and A McBeth, (2003) 2 New Academy Review 92


Reports, submissions and other papers

2012

  • Concept Note for AusAID, Australia/Myanmar Human Rights Capacity Development Scoping Mission (32pp)
  • Aide Memoire to AusAID, Australia/Myanmar Human Rights Capacity Development Scoping Mission (10pp)

2010

  • Submission and oral evidence to Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Hearing on Business and Human Rights, Paris (May)
  • Submission to Australian Parliament’ Senate’s Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Inquiry into the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Bill 2010 and the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2010 (July)

2009

  • Submission (written) to UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Business and Human Rights (April)
  • Submission (co-written) to Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into Freedom of Religion and Belief (March)
  • Submission (co-written) to Joint Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sub-committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Human Rights Mechanisms and the Asia-Pacific (February)

2006-7

  • Victorian Charter of Human Rights Workshop Manual for Legal and Legislative Policy Officers (Government of Victoria; 145 pp)
  • Submission (written) to International Commission of Jurists, Expert Legal Panel on Corporate Complicity in International Crimes (August)
  • Submission (written & oral) to International Commission of Jurists Inquiry into Anti-Terrorism legislation in Australia, Sydney (March)

2005

  • Submission (written) to Joint Parliamentary Committee on Corporations Inquiry into Corporate responsibility (November)
  • Submission (written) to the Australian Government’s Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee The Social Responsibility of Corporations (November)

2004

  • Submission (oral) on Corporations and International Human Rights Law to Human Rights Caucus of the US Congress, Washington DC (October)

2003

  • Discussion paper for Workshop with DFAT and Treasury Officials on State Obligations in Respect of the UN’s Human Rights Norms for Corporations (December)
    2003: Briefing paper for DFAT-NGO Human Rights Consultations, The Norms of Responsibility of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Entities with Regard to Human Rights, (with McBeth and Joseph) (March)
  • Report to AusAID on Mid-Term Review of Human Rights Adviser to the Director-General of Human Rights in the Indonesian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (20 pp + appendices)

2002-2003

  • Submissions (oral and written) to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs,Defence and Trade, Human Rights Committee, Inquiry into Human Rights and Good Governance Education in the Asia-Pacific (with Davis) December 2002 & June 2003
  • Six reports to AusAID under the Burma Human Rights Initiative Phases I and II. (@ 25 pp approx)


Conference & Speaking Engagements (selected)

Australia

  • “International Human Rights in 2012”, International Law in Review Conference, Sydney Law School, (Feb 2013)
  • “The Missing Link: State ‘Duties’ and Corporate ‘Responsibilities’ in the Evolution of Business and Human Rights”? Corporate Law Teachers Association Forum, ANU, Canberra (Feb 2013)
  • “Law and Economic Development in the Pacific Region”, Pacific Forum, Sydney (Sept 2012)
  • “Where Hope meets Expectation: Encounters on the Road between Idealism and Pragmatism” Human Rights: Old Dichotomies Revisited, Sydney Law School (Nov 2011)
  • “From Norms to Guiding Principles, and beyond”, launch of Human Rights Disclosure in the ASX 100 Report, Sydney (Sept 2011)
  • “Business and Human Rights Master Class”, hosted by Malleson Stephen Jacques, Sydney, (July, 2011)
  • “After Ruggie: The Future of Business and Human Rights – From Courtrooms to Boardrooms and Beyond”, Sydney Centre for International Law, Public Seminar Series, (June 2011)
  • “Global Leadership and Responsibility in 21 Century”, launch of Sydney Globalist, Issue 1, 2011, Sydney (March 2011)
  • “Medicine and Human Rights” Global Health Lecture Series, Sydney University Medical School, (March 2011)
  • “Too Big to Fail: Making Global Finance Pay for Human Rights” Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series, Sydney Law School (Sept. 2010)
  • “Awkward Intimacies between Human Rights and the Global Economy” Peter Benenson Memorial Lecture, Amnesty International, Perth (Aug. 2010)
  • “Globalization: A Force for Peace?”, Biennial International Peace Research Association Conference, Sydney, (July 2010)
  • “Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and the Global Economy”, Lowy Institute, Sydney (April, 2010)
  • “The Uses and Abuses of International Development Law”, Australia/Africa Forum: Peace Governance and Capacity Building, Sydney (March 2010)
  • “Response to Lord Bingham, “Human Rights, Equality and Fundamental Freedoms: What Difference does a Human Rights Act Make?” Australian Human Rights Commission, Sydney (Dec. 2008)
  • “Does the Globalizing Economy Help or Hinder Human Rights Compliance?” International Conference on Legislatures and the Protection of Human Rights, Melbourne Law School, (July 2006)
  • “Human Rights Fundamentalisms” Inaugural Lecture for Chair in Human Rights Law at Sydney University, Sydney, (Dec. 2006)
  • “Promoting Human Rights in Problem Places” Fulbright Symposium on Human Rights, Education and Peace, Melbourne University, (June 2005)
  • “Vietnam, Trade and International Human Rights Laws” Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Committee Annual Conference, Melbourne, (Dec. 2002)

Europe

  • “Finance and Human Rights: Connections and Challenges”, Session Chair, UN Office High Commissioner for Human Rights Forum on Business and Human Rights, Geneva (Dec 2012).
  • Symposium on Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and Global Economy¸ Queen’s University Belfast (Nov 2012).
  • “Finding and Filling the Democratic Deficit”, Redressing the Democratic Deficit in Human Rights Conference, Arts & Humanities Research Council, London (April 2012)
  • “A Vulgar Necessity: Making Sense of Human Rights and Global Finance” Human Rights Law Association (UK), London (Oct 2011)
  • “The Hand Made Visible: International Human Rights Law in Global Finance”, Tilburg University (May 2011)
  • “Human Rights Risks, Corporate Due Diligence and the Peculiarity of International Finance” Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Lund, Sweden (May 2011)
  • “The Financialisation of Human Rights?”, University of Geneva Law School, Geneva, (May 2011)
  • “The Hand Made Visible: International Human Rights Law in Global Finance”, Tilburg University (May 2011)
  • “Human Rights Risks, Corporate Due Diligence and the Peculiarity of International Finance” Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Lund, Sweden (May 2011)
  • “Bendable Rules: The Development Implications of Human Rights Pluralism”, Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg, Germany (Aug 2010)
  • “Protecting Human Rights by UN Mechanisms” Human Rights Law Centre, Nottingham University (July 2010)
  • “Learning to Listen Bridging the Divide between Human Rights and Global Finance”, hosted by Herbert Smith Law Firm, London (July 2010)
  • “Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and the Global Economy”, Edinburgh University (June 2010).
  • “Civilising Globalisation” British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London, (Jan 2010)
  • “Human Rights and the Global Economy”, keynote speaker, Instituo Superiore Internazionale di Scienze Criminali, Business and Human Rights Conference, Siracusa, Sicily, (Jan 2010)
  • “Macro-Economic Policy and Human Rights” Human Rights and Global Economy Colloquium, International Council on Human Rights Policy, Geneva, (Jan, 2010)
  • "Corporations and Killing: Prosecuting Blackwater”, Shooting to Kill conference, Instituto Internacional para la sociolog'a del derecho, Oñati, Gipuzkoa, Spain, (June, 2009)
  • “Taking the Social Responsibilities of Corporations Seriously”, University of Vienna, (May, 2009)
  • “Non-State Actors and International Human Rights Law”, Humboldt University, Berlin (May, 2009)
  • “Corporatizing Human Rights”, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Responsibilities for Human Rights, and International Law, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, (Nov. 2008)
  • “Globalizing Human Rights”, London School of Economics, (May, 2008)
  • “Human Rights and the Global Economy”, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Cambridge University (April, 2008)
  • “The Human Rights Implications of Viet Nam’s Accession to the WTO” Human Rights and WTO: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Conference, Monash Campus, Prato, Italy, (April, 2007)

North America

  • “Principle, Pragmatism or Prostitution? Speaking human rights to global finance”, Stanford University (Nov. 2010).
  • “Too Big to Fail: Making Global Finance Pay for Human Rights”, Duke Law School, (Oct. 2010)
  • “Financing Freedom: Human rights and the risks & responsibilities of global finance”, Harvard Law School (Oct. 2010)
  • “After Conflict: Building Peace, Development and Respect for Human Rights”, Westpoint Military Academy, NY, (Sept. 2009)
  • “Two Globalisations: Human Rights and the Global Economy” Georgetown Law School, Washington DC (Oct. 2009)
  • “Development and Human Rights”, Visiting Speaker Series, World Bank, Washington DC, (Oct. 2009)
  • “Human Rights and the Global Economy”, Schell Centre for International Human Rights, Yale Law School (Sept 2009)
  • “Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and the Global Economy”, in conversation with Philip Alston, NYU Law School, New York. (Sept. 2009)
  • “Making International Human Rights Law Relevant”, UCLA Law School, Los Angeles, (Sept. 2009)
  • “Measuring the Impact of Human Rights: Problems in Practice”, Legal Vice-Presidency Seminar, World Bank, Washington DC, (April 2007)
  • “Corporate Social Responsibility and International Law”, Symposium Invitee (x2), Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (April & Nov. 2007)
  • Roundtable participant: Corporations and Human Rights Symposium on UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Corporations and Human Rights, NYU, New York, (Nov. 2006)
  • “The Politicization of Human Rights” World Bank’s Legal Forum 2005: Law, Equity and Development, Washington DC, (Dec. 2005)
  • “Human Rights and Global Economic Actors” University of Virginia Law School, Charlottesville, (Oct. 2004)
  • “Human Rights and the Global Economy: The New Architecture of International Law”, George Washington Law School, Washington DC (Nov. 2004)
  • “Human Rights Implications of the ATCA” Staff and Student Seminar, Washington College of Law, Washington DC, Oct. 2004)
  • “The International CSR Scene”, Public Briefing Seminar for US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Washington DC (Nov. 2004)
  • “Corporations, Lawyers and International Human Rights Law”, International Bar Association Conference, San Francisco, (Sept. 2003)

Elsewhere

  • “Human Rights and International Economic Law” Kathmandu School of Law, Nepal (Jan 2013)
  • “Change Agencies in International Law: Finance and Human Rights” Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of International Law, Ninth International Law Forum, Beijing (Nov, 2012)
  • “Why Legal Scholarship Matters?”, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Graduate Institute, Beijing (Oct 2012)
  • “The Revolutionary Tendencies of Modern Finance”, International Forum on Law and Politics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, (Oct 2012)
  • “Human Rights and the Global Economy”, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing (Feb, 2012);
  • “Beyond the 100 Acre Wood: Navigating the Jurisdictional Jungle of Extra-territoriality regarding Corporations and Human Rights”, Business and Human Rights Conference, University of Johannesburg, South Africa (Jan, 2012).
  • “The Morality of Money”, Beijing America Club, Beijing (April 2011)
  • “The Global Financial Crisis, Poverty and Human Rights”, Second Beijing International Conference on Human Rights, Beijing China (Nov. 2009).
  • “Civilising Globalisation: Human Rights and the Global Economy”, Hong Kong University (Oct. 2009).
  • “Human Rights Development and Global Health”, International Conference on Realising the Rights to Health and Development for All, Hanoi, Vietnam, (Oct. 2009)
  • “State duty to Protect: A Commentary on the UN SRSG’s new Mandate for Human Rights and Corporations”, UN SRSG Consultation, New Delhi, India, (Feb. 2009).
  • “The Implications for Human Rights of Vietnam’s Accession to the WTO”, Human Rights and the WTO conference, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Political Science, Hanoi, (May 2007)
  • “International Human Rights Law in the Pacific”, a series of lectures at University of the South Pacific, Port Vila, Vanuatu (June/July 2007)
  • “Human Rights and the World Bank” Conference on Human Rights and Development: Approaches to Reform of Governance in the Asia-Pacific, City University of Hong Kong, (May, 2005)
  • “Corporate Social Responsibility, International Human Rights Law and Economic Development”, Cultures and Technologies in Asia – The Paradigm Shifts Conference Mumbai, India, (Feb. 2004)